The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1887-12-14
BUILDING LIARS.
The Paint of a Man Who Has
Given Himself Into Their

@ASen hlHAhell AltO Ine1r
Power.
This world is macadamized with
liars to such nseNtent that you can
scarcely believe what appears to be
the truth. Perhaps the greatest
liar as well as the one entitled to the
highest award, is the building liar.
You can call upon HMM the mid
die of May to see why he hasn't fin
ished the foundation that he said
would be complete in April. He
will tell you that March was so cold
that men could not work in the
open air, and that Foundation made
in such temperature would not
last.
When you ask him, little later
on. why the house is not lathed, lie
tells you the man hehad engaged to
do that work is In the hospitrl,
having only two days before fallen
off another building in course of
erection. Finally, the lathing is
done, and week OF two later you
casually ask the builder if there is
going to be any plaster put on. He
tells you the plaster can not be put
on until after the pipes have
been put in.
Then you go to the man who has
the plumbing contract. He admits
frankly that he is behind, simply
because the furnace pipes have not
been put in. He assures you that if
his work We're already done the
plaster could not go on until after
the pipe from the furnace were in
also.
Then you go to the furnace man
to know why the pipes have not
been put in. He tells you that if
all the furnace pipes were in, the
gas-pipes would have to go in, also,
before any plastering could be done,
and refers you to the plumber.
The man you engage to erect
your iron fence is not strictly a
builder, but he is sufficiently identi-
fed with building to lie fairly well.
The fence you order on the 1st of
March, he doesn't put up until June
24th, owing to the, to him, pleasant
fact that he chad number of big
orders from New Haven" In all
probability he never had an order
from New Haven unless it was to
leave the town inside of twenty-four
hours.
As you are lingering about, you
suddenly see a strange dog come
bounding out of the hole that is GO
ing to be a window. You ask where
the windows arc, and couple of
men who are down in the cellar pre-
tending to be doing something tell
you that they have been disap-
pointed in not getting the window
weights. Consequently every win
dow waits till they get ready to put
them in
If you are not around on the look
out, or if you depend on the archi-
tect to superintend the building
while he sits in his New York office,
you will get pine where the specifi-
cations call for something else, and
the something else will be painted,
that you may not discover that you
are getting the wrong kind of wood.
If you have the work done by
contract, your house will not be
properly built until after you have
been in it three years. But it will
be built sw1ftIy-almost while you
wait. But if you have it done by
days work, you won't get in for a
year after the house is promised.
This is because the men who work
by the day are conscientious, and
take their time. and their time is
money. Almost any time you can
find them playing poker on a lime
barrel.
Then the house is not painted, be-
cause the Boston concern hasn't
sent out the creosote stain; and the
mantels can't be made, because the
architect, whose stock in trade is a
pair of eyeglasses, has forgotten to
send on the plans; and the panel
work is not finished, because the
factory has not been able to turn it
out, owing to fire.
After you are in you find your
beams are not the right thickness,
and that your double-foors are sin
gle; and that the man who rubbed
the vanished closet-doors down
with pomice-stone didn't touch the
insides. You would like to touch
his insides with a load of No. 3
shot; but by this time he is lost to
Sipht and n,arnorx, any fbino l,,,+